National pharmacare must be ‘voluntary’ for provinces, premiers say

Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard is flanked by New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant, left, and British Columbia Premier John Horgan at the closing news conference of the Canadian premiers meeting in St. Andrews, N.B. on Friday, July 20, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Canada’s premiers say the provinces should be able to opt out of any national pharmacare plan.

The provincial leaders ended their annual meeting on Friday by stressing in a communique that any participation in a national pharmacare program has to be voluntary. One province, Quebec, has already said it won’t take part in a national plan.

“Any jurisdiction that wishes to maintain full control over drug insurance should have the right to opt out unconditionally, with full compensation should the federal government participate financially in the establishment of a pharmacare plan,” it said.

The document said such a national scheme would need to make sure federal funding for the program is be “long-term, adequate, secure” and flexible.

Pharmacare discussions would also have to centre around improving access by “removing cost barriers for patients,” and program development based on the “best available evidence about potential benefits, risks, costs, and reliability of supply.”

New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant, who hosted the Council of the Federation meeting, said the premiers didn’t dig into the “nitty-gritty” details on what it such a plan would cost. That’s something for the federal pharmacare advisory council to hammer out. But they did agree on broad principles – especially on who’s paying for it and that principles of asymmetrical federalism would have to be baked into such a system.

“In terms of who would be paying for it, what are some of the important considerations if this were to move forward – that was certainly discussed around the table,” he said.

Premiers ended their conference this week after getting an update from Dr. Eric Hoskins, who is chairing the Liberal government’s Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare at a breakfast organized by the Federation of Nurses Unions.

The other members on his council were named earlier this summer, and it officially opened up consultations to take submissions from the public earlier Friday.

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4 comments on “National pharmacare must be ‘voluntary’ for provinces, premiers say”

Well, of course, Quebec won’t go for it but ask for federal “compensation.” Ontario, who knows? The Atlantic provinces will probably sign on. The West? Anyone’s guess. It makes sense if it brings drug prices down, but when did “common sense” mean anything in this ramshackle federation of ours?

Ontario likely won’t before 2022 and after that only if you have progressive governments at both levels and that is likely to be short lived as Ontario usually votes opposite. I suspect Manitoba and Saskatchewan won’t sign on either and Alberta if they do will be short lived unless the NDP manages to somehow be elected next year. BC will probably sign on as they have an NDP government.

Sometimes the Provinces are priceless, they demand that there be non-mandatory provincial participation in a national pharmacare plan and if they don’t they should still get the FED money as if they had particpated. They have become so use to getting FED health money, which is a provincial area of responsibility, that they feel they can impose boundaries on a spending program that has yet to be developed and is to save everyone money, time and resources.